GALLERY: Lerena shows his worth in Cruiserweight fight

Kevin Lerena wastes no time to beat challenger.

March 25, 2019

Annette van Schalkwyk 2 minutes read

THE bulky boxer from the Smith’s Gymnasium, Kevin Lerena, has raised the bar in the cruiserweight division worldwide and has proven he is the man to beat in this division.

No Mercy Boxing Tournament took centre stage as Golden Gloves staged a well organised tournament at Emperors Palace on March 16.

Atrtur Mann from Germany challenged Lerena for his International Boxing Organisation, IBO Cruiserweight belt, but had to return home empty handed as he was blown away with the South Africans’ mammoth punching ability.

Lerena retained his IBO cruiserweight crown winning by TKO against Mann in the fourth round 2:37 seconds.

The German came out feeling his way through the first round while Lerena was blocking up most of the punches coming his way. The next two rounds saw Lerena picking up the pace as well as landing some of his devastating blows to Mann’s body and head. This laid the foundation for the fourth round stoppage.

The champion then set up Mann and let his punches do the talking in the ring. He was spot on in the fourth, dropping the German with an uppercut and rights and lefts to the head.

Lerena did not let Mann off the hook to allow him to beat the count and followed up with target shots to the head once again which saw Mann staggering to his corner and referee Jean Robert Laine from Monaco, stopping the fight as the challenger was in no state to continue.

Lerena improved his record to 22-1; 10 and the disappointing Mann saw his record drop to 15-1; 8.

The surprise package on the evening was definitely Frank Rodrigues who won the vacant Gauteng light-heavyweight title to the much more fancied Michael Markram, also from the Smith’s Gymnasium.

Rodriquez, training under the watchful eye of Alan Toweel, came in as underdog, had a perfect plan which was executed by his boxer.

The gruelling encounter saw Rodriquez won the title on an unanimous 10 round points decision of 96/94, 100/90, 98/92.

In a vacant World Boxing Association, WBA, Pan African junior-middleweight title bout, Boyd Allen won against John Bopape. Allan had to wait for the 11th round to plant his winner in the somewhat subdued fight. He won by TKO eleventh round 34 seconds after the bell sounded for the start.

Other results are:

Light-heavyweight: Xhek Paskali, draw against Alex Kabangu 37/39, 39/37, 38/38. Junior-middleweight: Roarke Knapp beat Thembani Mhlanga on a TKO 2:03 seconds; Cruiserweight: Keaton Gomes, beat Faradji Said, on a points’ decision by the judges all scoring 80/71. Catchweight: Gift Bolo, beat Timo Schwerzkopf, on a point’s decision 57/57, 56/58, 55/59.